The Greatest Things Freediver Fred Buyle Has Seen Underwater

The ocean fascinates for its vastness as much as its mysteries. For starters, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, we've only explored five percent of it. As anyone who has ever gone scuba diving, or even snorkeling, will attest, getting underwater is the closest you’ll get to touring another planet without having to board a rocket ship. For freedivers like Fred Buyle, who began diving when he was just eight years old, the ocean is where he grew up. Since he was an infant, Buyle would spend most of his time on his parents’ sailboat, adapting to what would become his second home and, eventually, his livelihood.

Freediving came naturally to Buyle who by 1999 had broken numerous world records, diving to depths of 300 feet. Nowadays, Buyle tends to stick to more shallow waters (around 100 feet), focusing his efforts on underwater photography, education, and conservation. In 2005—in light of the threats of climate change, pollution, and habitat destruction—he began working with marine biologists in the field. Because of the unobtrusiveness of freediving, Buyle is able to get up close and personal with large predators and help with tagging and DNA sampling.

Over the course of 20 years, Buyle has worked with a huge variety of marine life—everything from great white sharks to humpback whales. The coolest thing he’s ever experienced while diving? “Probably the birth of a sperm whale while I was diving in the Azores," he says. "I was surrounded by 30 whales celebrating the birth. It was unforgettable.”

Here, Buyle shares his favorite places to go deep, the packing essentials for every trip, and the one dive that’s still on his bucket list.

Places to Dive

My favorite places to dive are all of the Eastern Pacific. Places like Baja, California, the Galápagos, Malpelo in Colombia—these waters are very rich and full of large marine life. For someone who’s a recreational diver, I would definitely recommend heading to the Bahamas—it’s a wonderful place to freedive. It has many shark species as well as wild dolphins, plus the waters are always warm and always calm. If you’re more of an advanced diver, I would recommend checking out Malpelo. It’s a remote island off of Colombia with a marine protected area.

Packing Light

The main advantage of freediving is that we don’t have a lot of gear. I basically only travel with a wetsuit, dive watch, a pair of fins, a mask, and of course my photo equipment. A dive watch is the most crucial accessory for a freediver. When you’re freediving, you have a special relationship to time—sometimes it passes fast and other times it seems to slow down or even stop. Your watch almost becomes a friend, so I am always wearing my Ulysse Nardin Diver Deep Dive. I rely on my watch to monitor my perception of time. An automatic watch is key as it gives you the peace of mind that you won’t run out of battery in the middle of a remote expedition.

An underwater essential, the Ulysse Nardin Diver Deep Dive.

Fred Buyle nektos.net

Protecting Our Oceans

I’ve seen things change in the last 20 years. Nowadays, we see so much plastic waste in the oceans, even far off shore. The climate has also changed and modified the currents and the natural rhythms. As humans we have a big impact on the ecosystem. I’d say that our daily actions, good or bad, have an impact. We need to understand the power that we have to change things as individuals: Education is crucial for that. I always try to introduce people to nature to make them realize it is a fragile balance. We need to reconnect people to nature at a larger scale.

What's Next?

I’ve yet to go to Ascension Island in the Atlantic—I would love to dive there as it’s a very remote place. The waters are packed with large predators and it’s almost like an underwater Jurassic Park.